German rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie : making sense of the Nazi past during the civil rights era / Monique Laney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Laney, Monique, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rocketry--Biography--20th Century.

Rocketry.

Aerospace engineers--United States--Biography.

Aerospace engineers.

German Americans--20th century--United States.

German Americans.

Ex-Nazis--United States--History--20th Century.

Ex-Nazis.

Rocketry--History--20th century--United States--Biography.

Aerospace engineers--History--20th century--Huntsville--Alabama--Biography.

Space race--History--20th century.

Space race.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 302 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Making sense of the Nazi past during the civil rights era

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This thought-provoking study by historian Monique Laney focuses on the U.S. government-assisted integration of German rocket specialists and their families into a small southern community soon after World War II. In 1950, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket experts relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a town that would celebrate the team, despite their essential role in the recent Nazi war effort, for their contributions to the U.S. Army missile program and later to NASA's space program. Based on oral histories, provided by members of the African American and Jewish communities, and by the rocketeers' families, co-workers, friends, and neighbors, Laney's book demonstrates how the histories of German Nazism and Jim Crow in the American South intertwine in narratives about the past. This is a critical reassessment of a singular time that links the Cold War, the Space Race, and the Civil Rights era while addressing important issues of transnational science and technology, and asking Americans to consider their country's own history of racism when reflecting on the Nazi past.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE. From Enemy Aliens to Valued Citizens

CHAPTER TWO. Huntsville Becomes the "Rocket City"

CHAPTER THREE. "I Never Thought of Him as a Foreigner"

CHAPTER FOUR. Becoming Americans

CHAPTER FIVE. "We Just Did Not Move in the Same Circles"

CHAPTER SIX. The Rudolph Case

CHAPTER SEVEN. Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Huntsville

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300213454

OCLC:

910553920